


Snow woman

by ToxicPineapple



Series: Femslash February 2021 [6]
Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/F, Femslash February, Fluff, Light Angst, Married Couple, Married Life, Post-High School, Post-Hope's Peak Academy, Snow, Tenko's master was abusive, and I'm tired of people talking like he wasn't, angst if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 06:41:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29078013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToxicPineapple/pseuds/ToxicPineapple
Summary: “Oh! Maki!” Tenko accepts the jacket gratefully and starts tugging it over her shoulders. “Did Tenko wake you?”Mmmm. “No,” Maki lies. “But you should have closed the door. You could freeze the house like that, you know.” Despite her expression, Maki’s tone holds no bite, and Tenko must trust her quite a bit, because the anxiety in her expression melts away into a sheepish smile.Tenko turns back around to face the yard, and Maki shifts so that she can watch her profile as she speaks. “Tenko will be more mindful in the future, she doesn’t want Maki to get cold.” She clears her throat. “Tenko was just so excited! Look!”---It snows, and Maki and Tenko get their first chance to enjoy it.---Femslash February day six: Snow
Relationships: Chabashira Tenko/Harukawa Maki
Series: Femslash February 2021 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2137446
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24





	Snow woman

**Author's Note:**

> written for day six of femslash february! the prompt i used was "snow"

Neither Maki nor Tenko had the most conventional of upbringings. Tenko says that she doesn’t remember a lot of her life before she went to live at the temple with her old Master-- presumably her parents were normal people, who did normal things, but Tenko doesn’t have any memories to share, and well, even if she  _ does,  _ the only reason that Tenko would lie about it would be to avoid talking about it. Maki doesn’t think they’re at a part of their relationship where Tenko would lie to her, but she’s not particularly bothered either way. If Tenko doesn’t want to tell, then Maki doesn’t want to know.

But between being raised as an assassin and a vigilante-- respectively-- neither of them really had a chance to experience the things that most people would cite as normal parts of any childhood. That list sometimes feels like it’s miles and miles long, from holidays to eating too much candy on Halloween, to having any kind of  _ childhood  _ innocence, an unwavering trust of the world around them and the people in it. Both Maki and Tenko were deprived of those things for as long as they were living with and serving under their respective adults.

Another thing, Maki realises, that neither of them ever really got to enjoy, is the snow, and she realises this bright and early on a Monday morning when her blanket is thrown askew and she hears Tenko’s heavy footsteps pounding down the hall.

Maki groans, rolling over and adjusting the blanket. She knows that Tenko didn’t really  _ mean  _ to wake her-- even after being married for the past three years Tenko still tends to do things with a heavy hand, and Maki doesn’t mind that most of the time, except when it has the unfortunate side effect of dragging her out from under the covers before she’s ready to face the reality of being alive and awake in a world that’s neither as soft nor as warm as her world under the blankets-- but she still has to take a moment to mourn the sleep she just had. It’s rare that Maki gets to sleep without nightmares, even now, years after leaving the cult that kept her for so long. It’s not Tenko’s fault, and Maki won’t hold it against her, but,  _ ugh.  _ Her sleep, Tenko. Come on.

…Okay, Maki, you’re an adult. Up with you. Time to see what’s got the wife so excited.

Reluctantly, Maki drags herself out of bed and lets the blankets slip off of her, reaching for one of Tenko’s large t-shirts and pulling it over her head, shaking it quickly so that her hair-- which is much, much shorter than it used to be-- doesn’t get stuck in the neck. She finds her indoor shoes after a moment of feeling around with her toes and then pads down the hall, yawning, marginally less excited than her wife, whose footsteps she can still hear plonking around the foyer.

The front door opens with a creak, and Maki is received with a face of cold, cold air, and she sighs again, turning before she reaches the front of the house to head to their closet for a coat. As she pulls her jacket over her shoulders, she thinks for a moment, and then grabs Tenko’s coat as well, nudging the closet closed with her elbow and continuing down the hall to the front door, which Tenko has left  _ wide  _ open, letting all the winter air in. Maki grumbles as she steps out onto the porch, pulling the door shut behind her.

It must be the click of the door closing that alerts Tenko to Maki’s presence; she spins around, her green eyes going wide, and, predictably, despite the piles of snow all around the house, Tenko isn’t wearing a coat. Maki fights to keep a smile from appearing on her face so that she can maintain a stern expression, holding out the coat to her wife.

“Oh! Maki!” Tenko accepts the jacket gratefully and starts tugging it over her shoulders. “Did Tenko wake you?”

Mmmm. “No,” Maki lies. “But you should have closed the door. You could freeze the house like that, you know.” Despite her expression, Maki’s tone holds no bite, and Tenko must trust her quite a bit, because the anxiety in her expression melts away into a sheepish smile.

Tenko turns back around to face the yard, and Maki shifts so that she can watch her profile as she speaks. “Tenko will be more mindful in the future, she doesn’t want Maki to get cold.” She clears her throat. “Tenko was just so excited! Look!” She gestures around the yard at large, and Maki frowns, her gaze sweeping around the grass, trying to see what it is exactly that’s got her wife so worked up.

“What?” Maki raises her eyebrows. “What is it?”

“Maki isn’t looking!” Tenko insists, but before Maki can huff at her, she continues, “It snowed last night!”

“Oh,” Maki says. She looks at the snow capped bush off to her right, near where Tenko is standing, and frowns slightly. “Okay. I noticed. What’s the big deal? You’ve seen snow before.”

Admittedly, the area they live in isn’t a big one for snow, but Maki chose this location on purpose. She hates the cold. Not necessarily because of the sensation, but more for the memory. More than once Maki has been up all night, shivering on a mission, waiting for her target to come out in the bitter cold so that she could end their miserable life. There are few things that  _ don’t  _ remind Maki in some way of her years of an assassin, but with things as distracting and as all consuming as the cold, she… tries to go out of her way to avoid them.

Still, the white is pretty enough, she supposes, though that hardly warrants this reaction from Tenko.

“Well, it’s just…” Tenko looks around for a moment, as though speechless, her cheeks already flushing with cold, her green eyes bright. Maki’s been living with this woman for the past six years and the sight of that look still makes her heart skip a beat. “Doesn’t Maki want to play in it a little?”

“What?” Maki raises her eyebrows.  _ No?  _ Sure, back when Maki was really little, before her friend died, whenever it snowed the two of them would take the younger kids at the orphanage outside to play, making snow angels and snowmen, but that was practically from a different lifetime. Maki doesn’t think she’d  _ mind  _ making a snow angel, necessarily, but she also doesn’t particularly want to.

“It’s just that…” Tenko trails off for a moment before collecting herself. “Whenever it snowed back when Tenko lived with Master, he said that if Tenko got herself all wet and muddy rolling around in the snow, her Neo Aikido energy would be weakened!” Tenko has been no contact with her old master for years, now, since realising how awful that man really was, but the way she says the words  _ Neo Aikido  _ still has some of her old, familiar energy, and Maki feels a twinge in her stomach at the look on Tenko’s face. She’s not the only one between the two of them who has trouble forgetting. “And… well, Tenko’s always wanted to play in the snow, but…”

For once, it seems like this is something that  _ Maki  _ has gotten to do but  _ Tenko  _ hasn’t, and it’s such a strange occurrence that Maki decides it should be amended at once.

(And… well, maybe for other reasons too, but…)

“Fine,” Maki breathes out. “Come back inside and get dressed in real clothes, and we’ll… make a snow woman, or something. Whatever you want. But you’re going to get sick if you stay out here like this.”

Tenko turns to her, her eyes wide and bright, a smile breaking across her face. “Really? Maki will play in the snow with Tenko? She doesn’t have to, y’know!”

And Maki thinks,  _ Well, you didn’t have to love me, but you do, so,  _ but what she ends up saying in place of that is, “Maybe not, but I want to.” Before Tenko can protest any more, she adds, “But changing isn’t optional. Come on.”

“Okay!” Tenko nods eagerly and runs back onto the porch, leaning down to kiss Maki on the forehead, and then the lips, before she passes her on the way inside.

Maki shakes her head a little as she steps back inside, but it’s hard not to feel a bit excited herself, when Tenko smiles like that.

**Author's Note:**

> i can't believe i didn't do tenmaki OR tenkaede last year... criminal acts from the toxic pineapple, truly


End file.
